Conventionally, there have been various image processing methods for the image data which are captured by an imaging device such as digital camera. For example, Patent Documents 1 and 2 described below propose image processing methods in which image data are separated into a luminance component and a color component, then pixel values of multi-resolution image data, which are generated based on the luminance component image data, are manipulated and then reconstructed, and color composition is done with the color component image data.
According to such image processing methods, it is possible to improve problems of a lack of intelligibility and a lack of a sense of unevenness. Here, the image data having lacked intelligibility refers to the image data which give a hazy or foggy impression when compared with the impression recognized when a human actually sees. Further, the image data having lacked sense of unevenness refers to the image data which give a planer impression such that a sense of rampant trees or a sense of jagged rocks in an actual scene fades away.